New and Improved
by Dragonessa Smith
Summary: Hermione is invited to spend Spring Break at Neville's house, so his Gran can meet her. Her visit is cut short, however, and when school starts again, something strange has happened to Neville...
1. The Invitation

As the name implies, this is a story about Neville Longbottom. It is based on Bookworm's fic "It's My Life." I asked her (him? I don't remember.) If I could use one of the lines from that story in this one, but s/he hasn't gotten back to me yet, so I'm telling you the "Leave me the hell alone." line is Bookworm's.  
  
  
"NEVILLE!" Prof. McGonagall yelled. Everyone was so used to Neville's accidents that no one even bothered to look up.  
Except for Hermione, who had taken to working with Neville in their classes, since Ron and Harry always paired up.  
They obviously don't care, Hermione thought, watching them talk about "Snuffles" and fooling around, while she spent her days helping Neville clean up and fix whatever it was he did.  
Of course, he does need the help, she thought, as Neville kept repeating "Bulbosa Verdae" over and over, which did not make green bubbles appear as it should have.  
I don't regret helping him, it's just, well, there's no kind way to put it: Neville's got a mind like a sieve.  
Immediately, she felt guilty. It hadn't been two weeks since Neville had confided in her his biggest secret: That his parents weren't dead, that they were at St. Mungo's hospital. Hermione remembered all too well the look on his face when he told her they didn't even remember who he was. It was a cross between pure sadness and pure anger.  
That was why he lived with his grandmother, who, to Hermione, seemed like a rather controlling woman who none-the-less cared very deeply for her grandson.  
Maybe that's why she's so controlling, because she wants to protect him, Hermione thought.  
"Hermione?" Neville said.  
She sighed and said "It's bul-BO-sa Verrrdae. You have to roll your 'r's-"  
"Not that." Neville interrupted. "But thanks, I'll try to remember that." Neville gulped nervously and lowered his voice. "I've been writing to my Gran, er, telling her how you've been helping me, or at least trying to help me." He smiled timidly, but only for a second. "And, well, er, um, now she, uh, wants you to come over and meet her over Easter Vacation." He said all this in a rush, then pretended to be very interested in his bubbles, which were now almost as red as his face.  
She was about to say "No way!" when she remembered the look on his face. Not remembering their own child...  
"I'd love to, Neville."  
His face split into a huge grin. "Really?"  
"Really."  
Hermione knew, right then, that even if the vacation was pure torture for a week, it would be worth it just to see Neville that happy. 


	2. Of Gossip, Plugs, and Gran

A/N: Thanks to Ice Princess for making me want to write more of this. I was going to scrape it, but then she said "OHHHHHHHHH, that's cute! Are you writing more or not? Can't wait if you are, I really think you need to make a sequel! Just dying to find out what's going to happen if Hermione visits Neville.... ::grins:: *~Ice Princess~*" So anyone who's reading this now, say "Thank you Ice Princess!" Disclaimer: Nothing's mine but the plot. Love, Dragonessa Smith  
  
"You're kidding!" Ron said.   
He was sitting in the common room playing chess with Hermione after dinner, while Harry was doing his homework. Hermione had finished hers, and Ron only had Potions left, which he stubbornly refused to do until the last possible moment.   
They had started a conversation about what they were going to do over Easter Vacation. They both seemed shocked that Hermione had agreed to visit with Neville. (At the moment, Neville was in the hospital wing again.)  
"Why are you so surprised?" Hermione asked.  
"Well, uh, er, um..." Harry stuttered and turned red, as Ron went into a fake-coughing fit, which was obviously to hid his laughter.  
"What is that supposed to mean?" She cried indignantly.  
"What it means, is that Neville has had the biggest crush on you since first year." Parvati appeared behind her, flanked by Lavender, as usual.  
"What is that supposed to mean?" Hermione asked again.  
"Please, Hermione, as if you didn't know." Lavender said grinning. "He's been crushing on you since you helped him find his frog-"  
"Toad." Hermione corrected.  
"Whatever. What I'm trying to say is, Neville likes you and everyone knows it." Parvati replied. "I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to tell you over the break."  
"Leave her alone, girls." Harry said, watching Hermione grow steadily redder and redder.  
Surprisingly, they left after that, with much giggling and what-not.   
"You've just dug your own grave, you know that, right?" Hermione said. "Now they'll be spreading it around that you like me or whatever."  
"Hermione, do you ever listen to gossip?" Ron asked. "They already do. And they say stuff about you and Victor, you and me, you and Draco even! Someone started a rumor once that you were dating Charlie! (A/N: Little plug for DW,HH ;C) Hermione, just by associating with us, you're never going to be left alone again."  
"And when were you going to tell me this?" Hermione asked crossly, before knocking the chess set off the table and stomping up the stairs. Ron and Harry looked at each other.  
"Girls." They said together.  
  
"And when Gran starts to complain, what do you do?" Hermione couldn't believe that Neville was actually quizzing her on what to do at his house. How he could remember how to deal with his Gran, and not know how to make a simple Shrinking Solution bothered her to no end.  
"Just smile and nod and look like I agree with her." Hermione sighed.  
Neville smiled. "Gran is going to love you."  
"Neville!" A scratchy voice shouted, making Hermione jump.  
She looked at Neville. He had gone a nasty pale green.  
"Gran." He hissed to her. "Smile."  
Hermione forced herself to smile. She was sure it looked more like a grimace than a smile, but the old woman who was forcing her way towards them didn't seem to notice.  
"So. You must be Harriet." She said, smiling at Hermione. Before Hermione could correct her, she went on talking.  
"Well, I want to thank you for helping Neville out with his school work. Ehm," She asked in an undertone. "He has told you about his parent's...situation, right?"  
Hermione nodded, unsure whether to say anything or not. Neville's Gran kept on talking as though she had never asked a question.  
"Well, I'll admit, I doubt he'd be doing as well as he is if it weren't for you, though he's not doing as well as he could be. Used to have a mind like a steel trap. Before, ehm, it happened."  
Neville was looking very uncomfortable. Perhaps Gran had noticed, because she swiftly changed the subject.  
"So Harriet, are you hungry? I made a nice vegetable stew for lunch."  
"My names Hermione, actually," she interjected. "I must not have said it clearly before."  
Gran smiled, then went to hail a cab as Neville and Hermione collected their luggage.  
"That was a test, you know." Neville said, picking up his suitcase. "She wanted to see how you'd react."  
"So how do you think I did?"  
"According to Gran's smile, I'd say you aced the test." Neville laughed. "I can't imagine you not passing a test." 


	3. Big Oops

New and Improved  
  
  
A/N: I finally updated this! And like, two chapters! Okay, one, but I'm working on the next! Go me! I love three day weekends!  
  
DW,HH update: It's coming along, one sentance at a time. I may need some positive reinforcements...coughcoughREVIEWSFORANYSTORY!coughcough...to break my writer's block. No, that is not a threat, I'm just saying that might help.  
  
  
  
  
  
Later, at the Longbottom's house, Neville was helping Gran set up for lunch. Hermione was putting her suitcase in the guestroom.  
  
"Erm, Neville?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Don't you think that Hermione is a little over packed?"  
  
Neville looked up from the stew, confused. "What do you mean?"  
  
"Well, bringing a huge suitcase for an overnight visit. Don't you think that's over packing? Just a tad?" She added sarcastically.  
  
"What do you mean, an overnight visit?" Neville began to feel a familiar feeling, like he'd forgotten something very important again.  
  
"Neville, did you forget again?" Gran demanded sternly. "It's the twenty-second tomorrow."  
  
Neville turned a very pale white as he whipped his head around to stare at the calender on the refrigerator.  
  
She was right. There was a bright red ring around the date.  
  
Neville hated the twenty-second. For him, it always signified the day when...when...  
  
He gave an involuntary shake. Gran's expression softened, and she gathered her grandson in a hug.  
  
"It's all right, Neville. I'll tell her if you want. I'll say you forgot that you asked her for a week and thought you only asked her for a day. Alright?"  
  
It wasn't all right. He wanted to tell her. To tell her that he had just gotten his dates mixed up. He wanted her to say "It's alright, Neville, it happens to everyone." He didn't want her to think "I should have known, Neville always does stuff like this." But it was true. He couldn't deny that. It was true. (A/N: Slightly melodramatic, isn't he?)  
  
"Alright." He conceded.  
  
  
  
"Hermione?" Gran knocked on the door. "Could I speak to you for a minute?"  
  
"Sure, Ms. Longbottom." Hermione said.  
  
"Um, you know how absent-minded Neville is, right?"  
  
Hermione instantly felt a feeling of dread. "Did he forget something important?" She asked softly.  
  
"Yes. We're going to visit his parents tomorrow." She said, looking down. "He forgot about it."  
  
"I understand." Hermione said. "May I use your phone?"  
  
  
"So you only stayed one day?" Harry asked at breakfast the first day back..  
  
"Yes. Neville had forgotten he was going to visit his parents the next day." Hermione said. "I had to call my mom and ask her to pick me up four days ahead of schedule."  
  
"She couldn't have been too happy." Ron said, spitting crumbs on Hermione's books.   
  
"She wasn't." Hermione started. "And neither was I. I had to sit around at home all vacation. Though I don't suppose Neville could have had a much better time."  
  
Ron was about to comment when Parvati and Lavender came rushing up.  
  
"You guys, new student, really hot guy, probably a fifth year, just saw him in the hall, pass it around." The said almost in unison, before running off to the Ravenclaw table, presumably to tell Padma.  
  
"I didn't think Hogwarts accepted new students except during the sorting." Harry said, confused.  
  
"They don't, and even in the three special cases where they have admitted new students, it's never been in the middle of the school year." Hermione said, glancing at the doors to the Great Hall.  
  
"Besides, Dumbledore would have announced it by now." Ron said, gulping down his orange juice. "We'd better hurry, McGonagall always expects us to be early."  
  
By the time they reached their classroom, a group of girls were standing around the doorway.  
  
"Wonder what's going on?" Ron said to Hermione.  
  
"I don't know. Wait, there's Padma, let's ask her."  
  
"How do you tell them apart?" Harry asked, but Hermione ignored his question.  
  
"Padma, what's going on? Why are all these girls here?"  
  
"Oh, Hermione, didn't you hear?" She whispered. "You are so lucky, the new boy's in your class. He looks familiar, though. Isn't that weird?"  
  
Hermione sighed. "Hogwarts doesn't accept new students unless the circumstances are dire, and never in the middle of the school year. It's probably just some really quiet kid who got a new haircut." She glanced in the room and gasped.  
  
"Oh come on Hermione, you're supposed to be the sane one here." Ron elbowed his way into the classroom, then stopped short.  
  
"Hi Ron. Hi Hemrione."   
  
It was Neville. 


	4. Changes

A/N: I know, I know, this has been forever and a day in the making. I'm still not sure about this story, tho. It's weird. I like it and all, but it just doesn't seem right for ff.net. I already have the last part written out, and it seems like it'd be more fit for Oprah or something. Or a Lifetime movie.  
  
  
By lunchtime, the whole school was buzzing about Neville.  
  
His looks hadn't changed much, but he somehow seemed...different. Taller. And stronger. And hotter, according to Parvati and Lavender, and 99.999999 percent of the female population of Hogwarts, Hermione being the silent minority as usual.  
  
Stories were flying everywhere. Several people were telling of how he had put his hand up in class, and gotten the right answer every time.   
  
Hannah Abbot swore that she had seen a seventh year Ravenclaw girl walk past Neville, then turn and look again. No one had given Neville a second look since his second year, and that was just Hagrid making sure he wasn't a first year.   
  
And some random Hufflepuff boy was practically shouting that Neville had passed Fitch in the hall...and smiled at him. Fitch was severely shook up by the encounter, but Neville didn't even seem to notice anything different.  
  
All talk seemed to cease as Neville walked into the Great Hall, followed by a group of girls.   
  
As he took a seat at the Gryffindor table between Ron and Hermione, Fred leaned over and stage-whispered, "Neville, what did you do? Those girls were falling all over you!"  
  
Neville just smiled. "I have no idea what your talking about."   
  
"Oh my God," Lee leaned over from Ron's other side. "I don't believe it, Neville is holding out on us."  
  
"Hermione, could you pass the potatoes?" Neville asked, trying to ignore them, but his smile betrayed him.  
  
"Hi Neville." Parvati took a seat across from him. "How are you?"  
  
"Fine, thanks."   
  
"I feel like I've never gotten to know you before-" She started.  
  
"Well, maybe that's because you've ignored me the better part of the last five years, even though I've been in all your classes and lived basically a few yards away from you." Neville interrupted, still sounding cheerful, still smiling.   
  
Parvati looked like someone had just severely burst her bubble. "Er, yeah. Probably." She practically ran back to her seat next to Lavender, blushing furiously.  
  
"Damn, Neville got a new attitude!" George grinned, clapping him on the back. "What happened during Spring Break?"  
  
"I think we all want to know." Ginny leaned across the table. "So?"  
  
Neville looked round at all of them.  
  
"I think it's almost time for Potions." He said finally, getting up and grabbing his bag. "See you there, Hermione." He actually winked at her before he turned and left the table. 


End file.
